Neither of these things were true Tuesday night at Comerica Park in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series -- at least for the Detroit Tigers.

Justin Verlander gave up just one run, but that was enough for the Red Sox to take Game 3 of the ALCS. Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander delivered near-perfect pitching -- save for one single home run in the top of the seventh inning -- but that was enough for the Boston Red Sox to walk away with a 1-0 win and go up 2-1 in the series.

It's not supposed to happen that way, but it did. And it's happened before.

During the regular season, the Detroit Tigers went 8-8 in games in which Verlander allowed two or fewer earned runs.

"I mean, obviously it's tough, but ... you want to win every time you take the mound," Verlander said following Detroit's loss to Boston on Tuesday. "Obviously, to give my team a chance to win today, I would have had to throw up all zeroes and I wasn't able to do that.

"I wouldn't say it's frustrating."

Giving up only one earned run, when done consistently, gets you in the Hall of Fame. But it doesn't always get Verlander wins.

Verlander pitched eight innings Tuesday, gave up one earned run, had 10 strikeouts and the Tigers lost 1-0. In 2006 -- in Game 5 of the World Series against St. Louis -- Verlander pitched six innings and gave up just one earned run, and the Tigers lost 4-2.

In 2011, Verlander pitched 7 2/3 innings against the Los Angeles Angels. He gave up just one run, struck out eight and lost the game 1-0. In 2010, Verlander went 5 2/3 innings against Minnesota and gave up zero runs. The Tigers lost 2-0.

"It's baseball," he shrugged. "I can't even explain that. Baseball's a crazy game. You're ace is out there doing his thing and then one home run determines the game. It's a crazy game. If you stay here long enough, you play long enough, you're going to always see something new. I've been playing 20-plus years of professional ball, and I promise you, I see something different, new every time, every year.

"You're talking about one of the best pitchers in the game, if not the best pitcher in the game in Verlander. Just one run, one home run, determines the whole game in the postseason? That's crazy."

Despite how crazy it was, Verlander walked into the postgame press conference cool, calm, collected and confident -- just as he had been on the mound Tuesday. He wasn't frustrated; he's just not wired that way.

"I think you kind of expect that in this series, that's just kind of the way it's going to go," he said.